What does Tribe teach about blood sacrifice?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on blood sacrifice starts by clearing away the most common misreading people bring to the subject. Brian Hunter points out that most of us quietly carry a pagan frame into these texts: the idea that sacrifice exists to calm down an angry God who might otherwise destroy what we love. Brian says that picture could not be further from the truth. The sacrificial system in Leviticus was not designed by frightened people trying to appease a volatile deity. It was designed by God himself as a way to draw people close to him. As Brian puts it, "God has provided an incredible, beautiful way for us to have intimate relationship with God."
The fellowship offering in Leviticus 3 is where this teaching lands most concretely. Walking through the five steps of the ritual, Brian focuses especially on the laying on of hands. That gesture is not primarily about transferring sin onto the animal. It is about appointing a representative. The worshiper's essence passes into the animal, and because the animal is without defect, it qualifies to enter God's presence in a way the worshiper alone cannot. The blood sprinkled on the altar is therefore not a payment extracted from a reluctant God. It is the worshiper's own life, carried by the representative animal, brought right up to the holy place. Leviticus 17:11 grounds this: the life of the creature is in the blood, and God himself gave the blood for this purpose.
The cost involved is real, and Brian does not soften it. "For a life giving relationship with God, something has to die." That truth runs through the whole series. The Thunderdome metaphor the series is built on makes the same point from another angle: "Two men enter, one man leaves. Either you win and Jesus dies, or Jesus wins and you die." Blood sacrifice in Leviticus is the older picture of what the cross makes permanent. The animal stood in for the worshiper. Jesus stands in for everyone. The direction of the sacrifice has always been God providing the way, not humanity placating a threat.
Taught from Leviticus 3:1-17 · Leviticus 17:11 · 1 John 4:9-10 · Psalm 15 · Numbers 27:18-20
“God has provided an incredible, beautiful way for us to have intimate relationship with God.”
From The Sin Offering
The passage taught · 1 John 4:9-10
9 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- March 3, 2025 The Sin Offering Leviticus 3 shows that God designed blood sacrifice not to satisfy his anger but to draw us into intimate relationship with him.
- March 2, 2025 The Blood Bridges the Gap Brian Hunter walks through Leviticus 3 to show that God designed blood sacrifice not to manage his anger, but to draw people into genuine closeness with him.